Content owners, such as motion picture studios and broadcasters, in many circumstances wish to limit the distribution of content to a narrow physical span, such as within a single dwelling. Networking technology makes this restriction difficult to enforce as networks can contain devices that exist in widely varying locations. Given that much of the advertising and content distribution timing (for example, release windows of the content, sports blackouts, etc.) are location based, there is a desire to restrict content access to the span of a single location, such as a single home, residence, or office.
Attempts have been made to provide use limitation based on IP (Internet Protocol) hop counting. IP provides a mechanism for counting the number of routers or other intermediate nodes a packet passes through when traveling between a source and a destination. For example, FIG. 1A shows the path that a packet might take from a data source 101 to a local destination 103 and a remote destination 105. Under a hop-counting based method, the source might be limited to transmitting data through a maximum of one hop. In that case, it would be able to transmit to the local destination 103, but would be prohibited from transmitting to remote destination 105.
However, modern virtual private network (VPN) technology may make this approach ineffectual. A VPN connection between two nodes that are physically distant can hide the intermediate nodes between the two endpoints. For example, as shown in FIG. 1B, a user might create a VPN connection 107 between a data source 101 and a remote destination 105. Because data packets traveling over the VPN connection will not generally see the intermediate nodes, a packet can travel a great distance while staying within the IP hop count limit. Therefore, there is a need for a system that can enforce geographical limitations and without being bypassed through the use of a VPN connection.